This week, Jim Lobe and I have examined how Donald Trump’s national security adviser-designate, Ret. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, is a bewildering choice for a president-elect to tap for national security strategy and advice. In his book, coauthored with Michael Ledeen, Flynn exhibited a fundamental misunderstanding, coupled with unsubstantiated speculation, about Syria’s nuclear program. And he has drawn criticism for ties to foreign governments, allegedly leaking classified intelligence to Pakistan, and, as I documented on Tuesday, blaming the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and the Quran for why the Middle East “can’t come to grips with modernity.”

A new video, previously unreported but recently reviewed by LobeLog, shows that Flynn wants the U.S. to fundamentally change its position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, effectively giving both Israel and the Palestinian National Authority permission to abandon the peace process.

Speaking at a 2014 event hosted by the Sheldon Adelson-backed Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a hawkish pro-Israel group that has promoted anti-Muslim speakers and documentaries, Flynn advocated for the U.S. to relinquish any role in brokering peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, saying (my emphasis):

I don’t think there’s gonna peace between Israel and Palestine. I mean, come on. How many people have we struggled to go through that? So let’s be honest about this and not have another big name going in there and getting in the middle of the two countries and try to figure this out while people that are coming from one side of that line with daggers are putting knives into women and children in Israel.

Watch it:

Flynn’s argument that the peace process isn’t possible as long as the Palestinians engage in any form of armed resistance is a common refrain with neoconservatives and supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. But it would mark a striking departure from longstanding U.S. policy opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and supporting the creation of a Palestinian state, partially contingent on Israel giving up some of the land it captured in the 1967 war. On the basis of this position, U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama played central roles in peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Flynn’s comments fail to offer any real solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, other than to shift blame on to the Palestinians for the failure of an independent Palestinian state to materialize. His bleak outlook is probably not a welcome message for moderate Israelis and Palestinians.

A poll conducted over the summer by the Palestinian Center for Polling and Survey Research and the Israeli Democracy Institute found that 59% of Israelis and 51% of Palestinians support a two-state-solution.

Even within the Trump administration, Flynn’s laissez-faire attitude toward one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in the Middle East might be on a collision course with Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Ret. Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis.

Mattis told a 2013 Aspen Security Forum audience, “I paid a military-security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel.” Several high-ranking military officers (including David Petraeus) and senior diplomats have expressed the same concern—that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and furthering the long-term strategic interests of the U.S. are closely linked. Mattis went on to warn that the status-quo in Israel was untenable, and required quick action, saying “Either [Israel] ceases to be a Jewish state or you say the Arabs don’t get to vote—apartheid. That didn’t work too well the last time I saw that practiced in a country.”

Flynn, for his part, seems content to let this state of conflict fester, with all the damage that it causes in the region and for U.S. foreign policy.

Photo: Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

Eli Clifton

Eli Clifton reports on money in politics and US foreign policy. He is a co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Eli previously reported for the American Independent News Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.

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4 Comments

I don’t mind the USA pulling the plug on the “US-mediated peace-process” provided that they also end the farce that they *must* veto all UNSC resolutions lest that “endanger” that process, even when the resolution merely restates the declared foreign policy of the USA.

Take that “peace-process” away and Flynn will also be removing that fig-leaf i.e. it could no longer be denied that the reason that the USA is protecting Israel for flouting int’l law is that a powerful domestic lobby has successfully elevated their tribal allegiance above the national security interests of the country to which they belong.

Once again, Abbas brags about how he hasn’t made a single concession to Israel for peace
November 11, 2016

Mahmoud Abbas released a statement on the anniversary of Yasir Arafat’s death.

He said that the Palestinian investigation into the cause of his death, twelve year later, were going to be released “soon.”

But besides that, Abbas repeated something he has said many times before, something that demolishes his reputation in the West as being a “moderate” and a peacemaker.

In this passage, he speaks about the unchanging positions and principles of the PLO. The main word is translated as “constants” or “invariables” indicating that the word is stronger than just principles, so I have kept that wording:

The PLO achieved recognition as the sole and legitimate representative of Palestinian people and kept the unchanging positions (“constants”), and declared Palestinian independence in 1988 in Algeria, and we went back with him [Arafat] to establish a Palestinian national authority, on our land, Palestine .
Many people are talking about constants. Where are the constants?, They are the constants that were declared at the Palestinian National Council in Algiers. And some people speak without knowledge, …and I say here, I challenge [them to show] that we gave away one constant since 1988. We come back to the constants adopted by the famous National Council, which was attended by 700 members, which represent the entire spectrum of the Palestinian people, and have taken these decisions, and we are sticking to these constants by our teeth and say: We are sticking by them and continue to hold firm in order to achieve them.
Abbas is bragging once again that no concessions have been made by the PLO since before Oslo, let alone during his entire term as Arafat’s successor.

None.

During that time period, Israel has has allowed terrorist leaders to move into the territories, it has given up land, it has accepted a two state solution.

And the Palestinians have done literally nothing for peace since 1988 – according to their own leader.

Notably, that part of his speech (and other inflammatory parts that I will write about) were not translated into English by the official Wafa news agency report of the speech.

I hate cliches. But, America actually could be great–if not again, then maybe for the first time–if it just flushed that bloodsucking lungwart Israel down the hopper and got on with some adult behavior and respect for others.

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